94-Year-Old Vet Brutally Beaten in Modesto Home Invasion

A 94-year-old World War veteran living in Modesto with his wife was brutally beaten in a home invasion on Friday–and is fighting for his life.

Richard Iverson was left in an induced coma at the Memorial Medical Center after a man and woman invaded his home and beat him until all the bones in his face were broken.

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Iverson’s wife, Mauirine, 85, told CBS Sacramento that her husband went outside their home to turn off the lights before bed when she heard him cry out for help. As Mauirine headed toward her husband, a masked woman met her in the kitchen, saying, “Be calm. Be calm, be calm.” Mauirine continued, “I thought I better be…She took off down the hall, and in no time a man, I know it was a man, raced out through the kitchen.”

Making her way to her husband, Mauirine saw the horrifying truth. She said, “I found him in the breezeway in a puddle of blood, and I mean a puddle of blood.”

The Iversons’ neighbor, Tristen Meserve, heard Mauirine yell over the music he was playing in his backyard. He told CBS Sacramento, “It was just the way she screamed. I mean, people don’t normally scream like that.” Jumping over his fence, he found Richard. Meserve said, “I helped him in, got him, sat him down at the table, and tried to put pressure on his nose because it was pretty bad, his face was split.”

Mauirine told CBS that the attackers stole a bedroom drawer that contained papers and some cash. Her son Bill commented, “It’s just a senseless crime. It’s just killed my family. These people need to be caught.”

Mauirine concluded, “Oh yes, four major battles in the Philippines…in the Pacific. So now he’s got another battle to head to.”